Attempts are being made by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to mass multiply elite coconut varieties through tissue culture to raise production and productivity of the nut.

Towards this groundbreaking innovation, TNAU’s Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology optimised in vitro culturing of the dissected embryo and regenerating them into whole plants. TNAU planted its tissue culture baby at the Coconut Garden on September 2 (World Coconut Day).

Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiative of the State Planning Commission is supporting this initiative.

TNAU sources said that the demand for coconut had increased 500 per cent in the last decade, widening the gap between supply and demand and necessitating the need for increased production and productivity.

Establishing elite coconut gardens and rejuvenating the existing aged coconut orchards would require quality seedlings, elite coconut genotypes. The current multiplication ratio of 1:1 would enable the supply of only about 30 per cent of the demand (3 to 3.5 million against 10 million seedlings demand). Multiplication rate has therefore to be increased to at least 1:20 without compromising on quality and genetic uniformity, say researchers.

To meet this demand in supply of quality seedlings as well as to reduce the number of nuts going for seed purpose, the farm varsity is making innovative attempts to mass multiply elite coconut genotypes through tissue culture.

N. Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU said that the University is channelising its efforts towards increasing the multiplication ratio to 1:2, 1:4 and 1:8 to meet the demands of Tamil Nadu farmers.

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